A picture archive communication system (PACS) is a system that facilitates the acquisition, storage, retrieval, distribution, and display of digital images and related patient information from a variety of imaging sources (e.g., CT scans, MRI scans, X-rays, ultrasounds, and other medical images) using a network. The network may be a local or wide-area network, and typically is configured with modality interfaces and a server system for a healthcare facility. DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) is a standard that defines connectivity and communication protocols of medical imaging devices, and includes a file format definition for storing and distributing medical imaging information.
Current PACS technology utilizes point-to-point networking to move images from modality-to-DICOM acquisition, to caching server, to archive, to backup. Images are fully “copied” on and across the network many times. In addition, an end-user must copy a lossless version of the medical image to the client computer as they view the study. Such point-to-point networking and repeated copying is associated with significant bandwidth usage and time delays.
In addition, current PACS solutions must re-start transmission of the entire medical image object from the source to the client computer in the event that the connection is lost or failure occurs. Moreover, current PACS solutions require low-latency networks, since the image pixel data is typically transmitted to the client computer as it is requested. With high-latency connections, pixel data transmissions may be susceptible to unacceptable end-user wait times. Further exacerbating this situation is that current PACS solutions do not utilize the processing power and data storage available on common ordinary personal computers.
Current PACS technology requires extensive workflow rules processors to “push” studies to the intended diagnostic workstation from which the study will be viewed by a clinician, or the clinician has to “request” studies and then wait while they are transferred to their computer for viewing. PACS solutions also require costly storage area networks (SANs) to serve up images on demand. Many traditional PACS solutions require a network to be active in order to view studies. This creates significant problems and patient safety issues for patient procedure labs, and surgery rooms where imaging is required 100% of the time.
Furthermore, traditional PACS viewing stations may expose patient privileged information since DICOM studies are usually stored secondarily on PC file systems. DICOM file format includes patient confidential information and does not provide a method for securing this data. A DICOM part-10 patient medical image file can be passed around via the Internet, email, and other such common forms of communication without consent from the patient or physician. Part-15 of the DICOM specifies transmission and some negotiation security, but does not address the Part-10 file security issue.
What is needed, therefore, are techniques for efficiently distributing and securely handling of patient medical images.